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Also… notice that one little thing that makes it a “meal”. Why in the world can’t KI throw a few chips on the plate at Enrique’s?

Be THRILLED with whatever we have-regardless of how thin it might seem. My goodness Kings Dominion is SAD with entertainment for their 50th no less. The Bubble Show started Saturday. Ran 2 shows and is now “cancelled” with no shows scheduled- not sure why. Not much else. Their bandstand show is “ok” and the nightly “celebrate light show” is beyond lame. It’s sad to see such a BEAUTIFUL park so light on experiences. I have to believe the catch 22 is in effect. No one is here, so why have shows. There are no shows, so why be here. This park is DEAD! First time here and was planning on Fast Lane to get all the bigs in. No need. 1) half of the coasters aren’t on the list 2) did em all between 6:30-900 last night. Seriously crazy here.

WinterFest presented by Tower Topics.

It’s hard. I mean, I can’t blame them for not having fireworks last night as there HAD to have been only a few hundred people in the park by 9:30 (we literally were the ONLY people riding Grizzly 3x last night), but if you don’t provide any compelling thing to keep people, then you’ll have that. The park has a wonderful kids area, with a giant outdoor theater (like our showplace) sitting dead. It’s just sad because they made this big deal about the “return of live entertainment for the 50th.” I don’t care since it’s the same bubble show we had, but the park deserves better. Even IF the show was running, it wouldn’t be enough.

Hey look! Red sauce! Dominion at least knows how to order stuff!

The showtimes for Country Crossroads, Hot Rhythm Nights, and Trailblazers X-treme will be changing with the start of Grand Carnivale on Saturday 7/19. If the app is accurate, Country Crossroads will be 3:30, 4:30 and 7:30. Hot Rhythm Nights will be be 6:30 and 7:30. Trailblazers X-treme will be 2:30, 4:30 and 7:00. Not sure what the days off will be for the two weeks of Grand Carnivale.

People who came to the park together were suddenly all single riders entering the line at the same time. That played a big part in the elimination of the Single Rider lines.

Here are the show times boards for some of this season's Live Entertainment! Shows that I do not have pictures for are listed as well using available information. "Country Crossroads" May 24 – August 10, 2025 1:30 pm, 2:30 pm, 4:00 pm, 5:00 pm (No shows on Mondays) Festhaus "Gazillion Bubble Show: Aurora" May 31 - July 6, 2025 1:00 pm, 3:00 pm, 5:00 pm (No shows on Thursdays) Kings Island Theater "Hot Rhythm Nights" May 24 – August 10, 2025 7:00 pm, 8:00 pm, 9:30 pm International Street Bandstand "Kings Island's Nighttime Spectacular" May 23 – August 31, 2025 10:00 pm nightly International Street and Parkwide "Meet-N-Greet Experience" April 18 – September 1, 2025 12:00 pm to 6:00 pm Peanuts Showplace "Trailblazers X-treme" presented by The Original Bomb Pop Extremes June 21 – August 3, 2025 2:00 pm, 3:30 pm, 5:00 pm, 6:30 pm (No shows on Tuesdays) International Showplace

It’s mind boggling that it’s real. I wonder what the g-forces are for such a thing.

This thing is finally testing.

I think I heard their Gazillion Bubble Show is canceled for the time being until they can make the floors less slippery from the bubbles. The Kings Dominion Theater hasn't been regularly used in years so I'd assume there is a difference between the KD Theater and KI Theater that wasn't taken into account. Kings Island really had it good for their 50th anniversary celebration. It makes me wonder what both Great America parks 50th celebrations will look like next year. The lack of quality entertainment (and lack of advertising for said entertainment) may be a plausible reason to add to why Kings Dominion can't seem to attract families on the scales they might want to. There is a noticeable absence of quality, slow-moving attractions and things to do for non-thrill-seeking across the Six Flags chain. Maybe they could bring in more families by adding a new train ride, a few new small attractions, and more shows with more showtimes. Parks like Six Flags Over Texas don't have many shows either. Hopefully Six Flags can recognize the importance of entertainment when finding new ways to attract more guests and dramatically increase attendance across all of their parks.

I would say it's highly likely, same with Winterfest. My prediction is Haunt will be Snickers, Tricks & Treats brought to you by either Kroger, that pretzel sponsor I can't think of the name of from years past, or M&Ms. Winterfest I'm unsure, maybe Kroger, or one I've yet to see make a return from the Paramount days is P&G. It's worth noting Mars also sponsors Disney's Not So Scary Halloween event in Disney World

I wonder if we'll see Kings Island's Halloween Haunt receive a sponsor this year. They've been popping up on the other Halloween Haunt events, and might be useful if they help bring in some money to improve the event. SCarowinds has also released a teaser referencing their 25 Years of Fear celebration. I hope we can also get something good and fun for Kings Island's 25th year of haunt. Haunt season will be a crucial time for season pass sales this year after what some guests have gone through with the park this summer. The current split between sponsored/unsponsored is about as 50:50 as it can get. So far the following nighttime Halloween events have newly received a Snickers sponsorship: SCarowinds HalloWeekends @ Cedar Point Halloween Haunt @ Dorney Park Halloween Haunt @ Kings Dominion The Haunts that remain so far unsponsored are: Knott's Scary Farm Halloween Haunt @ Canada's Wonderland Halloween Haunt @ Kings Island Halloween Haunt @ Worlds of Fun ValleyScare I don't think the rest of the Legacy Cedar Fair parks have a night time Halloween event, and the only Legacy Six Flags parks that doesn't have a sponsor for Fright Fest are Frontier City, Great Escape, and Darien Lake. An interesting thing to note is that LaRonde's Fright Fest is sponsored by Fizz, not Snickers.

^I think they will go the other way and either hold prices steady or lower the price for 2026 passes. They have made comments that have alluded to making it up in quantity moving forward. The only way to do that is lower prices.

Nobody from the park has ever said anything to us about the Tower Topics podcast, except they enjoy it and learned things they didn’t know. As for retiring the Tower Topics X, it simply wasn’t proving enough value for the podcast. We have chosen to put all of the channel’s social media efforts into the Tower Topics Facebook Group. That has been providing us with far more value. We did have good engagement with the content we published on X, better than many of the posts the park makes on X. It just wasn’t proving enough value for us. A lot of what we’d post on X can still be found on my personal X. Ryan and I are not going to be shills for the park. We’re going to keep doing the podcast the same way. Genuine and authentic with honest and frank discussion about Kings Island.

Speaking of Funnel Cake, the M&M funnel fries from Jukebox Diner is very good!

Yeah, I don't think it was based on a response from the park. I agree with Don that while it's important to bring up the issues, it can become tiring just talking about the negatives. While important to hold the park accountable, it's also important to recognize everyone at the park level is trying to deliver the best park experiences they can with the resources given. Especially teenagers being paid $14/hr. I think being a theme park enthusiast, it can suck the fun out of the hobby focusing on trying to find the negatives. Especially doing it with a podcast, and as Don said, he's grown up with KI his entire life and I'm sure it's hard seeing and continuing to talk about issues people bring up. Not that they won't ever highlight issues, but that I think they want a break from it being the primary focus of most episodes.

I haven't listened yet, so I don't know their official explanation for deleting the X account. Part of me wonders if they just didn't get good engagement on it and the fact that X is so toxic as is, and it's kind of a cesspool no one wants to support. The Facebook group is still there, but I don't know if that posts less confrontational stuff than the X account (I'm not on X). Can they be kicked out of the park for sharing bad views? Honestly, seems weird. If so, couldn't KI theoretically ban any of us for saying something, if they figured out who we are? They're not park employees (any longer) and they're paying guests. They might get frozen out of exclusive news, etc., but I don't think upper management can really confront someone for saying they had a bad experience. I think it's more likely that the podcast was started as a way to talk about Kings Island -- a park that, whatever the good or bad, they have a lot of love for. That means being honest when it falls short of expectations, but I wouldn't tune in to see them talk bad about it every week -- I want them to celebrate what's good in the park as well. If they enjoyed the 4th of July fireworks (which appears to be the subject of the latest podcast episode), then I'd expect they'd rave about that and there might not be a reason to talk about the other experiences.

We’re nearing mid-July, and let’s be honest—this has been really rough season at Kings Island and for the company. From staffing shakeups to cutbacks, to things like no ice, no cups, and restaurants closed—it’s all added up. Guests have noticed. I’ve noticed. But here’s the part we don’t say enough: there are still a lot of hard-working associates out there showing up every day, doing their best with what they’ve got. And they deserve credit—a lot of it. The message about what’s wrong? It’s been heard. Loud and clear. The park knows. It’s on them to fix it. As we head down the homestretch for daily operation, let’s shift the focus and talk more about the good things happening during our visits.

A version of Bands in Residence at CP would be great to see at Soak City since they don't have entertainment. Other parks including Dorney Park and Valleyfair have done this.

Anyone who thought that coaster of this magnitude would not have challenges in the inaugural season was deluding themselves. Had Intamin, B&M, S&S or RMC done it, there would still be challenges. I hope I'm right, but I don't think this spells the end of TT2 or zamperla by any means. When these issues are resolved it should prove to be much more reliable than dragster ever was. I'm glad zamperla and Cedar Point are taking the hit to do it right. It just sucks that because of the hit that CP may take financially the budget cuts will further be hoisted on Kings Island.